The crisis in black America is threefold...economic...political...and spiritual. — Cornel West Copy Share Image
Black people have always been America's wilderness in search of a promised land. — Cornel West Copy Share Image
Martin Luther King wanted to be morally consistent and speak out against various things that were wrong, not just racism. — Cornel West Copy Share Image
White supremacy is so deep-seated that it's hard to see it eliminated. But we could definitely push it back. — Cornel West Copy Share Image
Martin Luther King's legacy is never to be measured by bricks and mortar, but rather by the kind of lives that we… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
The paradox of race in America is that our common destiny is more pronounced and imperiled precisely when our divisions are deeper. — Cornel West Copy Share Image
For most of the history of the American empire, government has been a tool for preserving and furthering the power and might… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
Martin Luther King Jr. was not just a man of peace. He was a radical pacifist, and so he was against war… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
It's no accident that most of the great black spokespersons and leaders understood the centrality of self-affirmation, self-respect and self-love. — Cornel West Copy Share Image
Anybody who takes Martin Luther King seriously has got to go beyond the standard understanding of who he was, has to connect… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
Martin Luther King Jr's agenda was not to help Negroes overcome American apartheid in the south. It was to make America democracy… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
One of the things I love most about Martin Luther King is that he was willing to sacrifice his popularity in favor… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
There's no doubt that many of the mainstream white institutions tend to be cosmetic and symbolic when it comes to including African-Americans,… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
We live in a world where people are fearful of extremism, but Martin Luther King would say he was always trying to… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
Certainly Martin Luther King, in the mainstream perception of him, had a dream. Yes, he did. But the question becomes, what was… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
Part of the popularity with Louis Farrakhan has less to do with the content of his message and more to do with… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
I don't draw any distinctions between forms of bigotry or forms of ideology that lose sight of the humanity of people. I… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
Martin Luther King would celebrate the symbolic status (of having a black president), but he would examine what the real substance was.… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
I think it's important not to view Martin Luther King Jr. in a narrow political manner. His fundamental commitment is to a… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
All talks about legacies of white supremacy must be tied to empowering the lives of poor and working people as a whole.… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
“There are hundreds of political prisoners right now in America’s jails who were so taken by Malcolm [X’s} spirit that they became… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
“To be "bad" is good not simply because it subverts the language of the dominant white culture but also because it imposes… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
I grew up in traditional black patriarchal culture and there is no doubt that I’m going to take a great many unconscious,… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
And every historic effort to forge a democratic project has been undermined by two fundamental realities: poverty and paranoia. The persistence of… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
White supremacist ideology is based first and foremost on the degradation of black bodies in order to control them. One of the… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
The American Dream is individualistic. Martin Luther King's dream was collective. The American Dream says, "I can engage in upward mobility and… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
“The prevailing discriminatory practices during the sixties, whose targets were working people, women, and people of color, were atrocious. Thus, an enforceable… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
“Needless to say, this fragile experiment began by taking for granted the ugly conquest of Amerindians and Mexicans, the exclusion of women,… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
“My aim is not to provide excuses for black behavior or to absolve blacks of personal responsibility. But when the new black… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
“Black anti-semitism is a form of underdog resentment and envy, directed at another underdog who has made it in American society. The… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
Martin Luther King was a radical democrat, by which I mean someone who is a foe of wealth inequality. — Cornel West Copy Share Image
Martin Luther King was a victim of surveillance, and had great solidarity with victims of surveillance. — Cornel West Copy Share Image
If you can't have a good time and smile and relate to people across race and class, then the success that you… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
There ought to be a robust, uninhibited conversation in black America with different black ideological perspectives. — Cornel West Copy Share Image
The legacy of [Martin Luther] King is the very thing that must be expanded if America is to be free and democratic… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
Martin Luther King was not a Marxist or a communist, but his radical love leads him to put poor and working people… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
The black agenda, from Frederick Douglas to Ida B. Wells to Martin King, has always been the most broad, deep, inclusive, embracing… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
There has certainly been ugly, right-wing hatred targeting Barack Obama. — Cornel West Copy Share Image
What is accurately portrayed is the rich humanity not just of Martin Luther King but of the movement, which was a multiracial movement. You… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
I feel as if I have been blessed to undergo a transformation from 'gangster' to 'redeemed sinner with gangster proclivities.' — Cornel West Copy Share Image
“Like King, we need to put on our cemetery clothes and be coffin-ready for the next great democratic battle.” — Cornel West Copy Share Image
“You can't really move forward until you look back. [From Remaking America panel discussion at George Washington University]” — Cornel West Copy Share Image
When we think of globalization we are thinking in part of structures and institutions that have been developed over time and that have allowed… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
The challenge artists face today is whether to be an underground, unheard genius, or to dilute their art for the marketplace. — Cornel West Copy Share Image
The need of black conservatives to gain the respect of their white peers deeply shapes certain elements of their conservatism. In this regard, they… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
For me, musicians are poets. Beethoven describes himself as a poet of tones, just like Coltrane's a poet of tempo. — Cornel West Copy Share Image
I don't draw any distinctions between forms of bigotry or forms of ideology that lose sight of the humanity of people. I can't stand… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
Barack Obama has domesticated the left in such a way that we feel as if we have no alternative but him...I refuse to accept… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
Larry Summers, I think, he had a long history of arrogance and relative ignorance about poor people's culture and working people's culture and so… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
![“There are hundreds of political prisoners right now in America’s jails who were so taken by Malcolm [X’s} spirit that they became warriors and the powers that be understood them as warriors. They knew that a lot of these other middle-class [black] leaders were not warriors; they were…” quote by Cornel West](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/f59/cornel-west-708_african-american-his_there-are-hundreds-of-political-prisoner_3220269.jpg)
![“The legacy of [Martin Luther] King is the very thing that must be expanded if America is to be free and democratic in the 21st century. It's just as simple as that.” quote by Cornel West](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/496/cornel-west-708_21st-century_the-legacy-of-martin-luther-king-is-the_3221308.jpg)
![“You can't really move forward until you look back. [From Remaking America panel discussion at George Washington University]” quote by Cornel West](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/273/cornel-west-708_george-w_you-can-t-really-move-forward-until-you_37313.jpg)
